The last time I saw a Brown Creeper I was cross-country skiing at Confederation Park and had stopped at the top of a hill to catch my breath. I was near a stand of Spruce trees and noticed a piece of the bark was moving. Of course it wasn’t the bark – it was a tiny brown bird moving up the tree. The Brown Creeper is not a well-known bird largely because they lay low, extremely low. They are elusive and mysterious but when you see one its behaviour and look is unmistakable. If you decide to add it to your Life List and go out looking for one, good luck! You’re going to need it. Another strategy is to read this article to familiarize yourself with the Brown Creeper for the day you see one, then you can point to it and yell “a Brown Creeper!”
First of all they are tiny, their body is about the length of a thumb, add to that their long brown tail. Secondly they have amazing camouflage, they have brown feathers on the top of their body, perfectly suited to hide against a spruce tree. Their underside is a white colour, this countershading camouflages them when flying. Their stealth colouring is only undone by their song, a high pitched tssst sound. That’s where you come in with your phone at the ready, the Merlin Bird ID app open. It can identify a Brown Creeper and then you can look for it by its song.
If you get a good enough look you will see its curved bill, perfect for digging in the bark where other birds can’t get to. It eats the insects, their eggs and pupae, hidden in the bark. In photos you can see its relatively long feet, which help it hang on to the bark as it creeps upward in a spiral. Once they have checked out a tree they will fly to the base of the next and start up that one. I wonder if the nuthatch, going down and the creeper, going up, have ever bumped their little heads together. What an adorable mishap that would be.
The Brown Creeper needs live trees to forage on and dead and dying trees to nest in, they use the whole forest lifecycle (allaboutbirds.com). The English traditional park of rolling green lawns with large trees studding it is horrible for wildlife. In our city it’s nice we have some Creeper friendly ‘messy parks’ like Weaslehead and Fish Creek.
Hopefully five years from now when you actually see a Brown Creeper on a tree you can recall the name of it. Maybe the fact that it is ‘creeping’ up the tree will twig your memory and you can yell out its name. Your advanced birding badge will be on its way if you succeed.
If you are walking around Calgary and hear a bird singing its heart out in a long trilling song, it is most likely a House Finch. These small birds are identified by their brown bodies, heavy beaks and the red colour on the male. It’s hard to believe that these now ubiquitous birds were fairly rare in Calgary, until as recently as the 1990’s! In theory most of us can remember a time when there were no House Finches around. In practice I barely remember the 90’s. Look at a group of birds at any feeder now and you will probably see some. The females have a striped body, and I find if you look for the stripes you can tell them apart from the House Sparrow fairly readily.
The House Finches origins start in the Southwestern US and Mexico. In the 1940’s someone tried to rebrand them as a ‘Hollywood Finch’ and sold them to pet stores in New York. In what way are they symbols of Hollywood I’m not sure, it was a different time back then. The Migratory Bird act came into effect, and all of a sudden pet store owners had illegal birds in their store. What do you do with a bird you don’t want? You open the window and let it fly away! If that bird is a tough and hardy finch, it will spread across North America.
The House Finch is prone to an eye disease called Mycoplasmal Conjunctivitis. If you see one with red puffy eyes don’t bother running out with tiny little cucumber slices, that bird is too far gone. According to Project FeederWatch you should take down your feeder for a couple days and then wash it. This will stop the spread of the disease to other House Finches.
These birds are fairly strict vegetarians, they fill up on seeds, buds, roots and foliage. Their colour is believed to be related to how well they are fed, if you see an orange male it could be that he isn’t getting all the nutrients he needs. Studies show the females choose the redder males. The male House Finch is responsible for feeding the young so it’s important to choose one that is a good provider. According to allaboutbirds, during courtship the male mimics regurgitating food to the female, showing off how good a feeder he is! These are monogamous birds, and very social, so really what you are seeing around the feeder are just a bunch of couples hanging out together.
What I love about them is their song that seems so out of place on a cold day. Listen for a “zzz” buzzing sound that is part of the up and down warble and it sure to be a House Finch. You can look for the singer and you will see a little brownish bird way up in the heights of a tree singing, perhaps lamenting its ancestors’ move from Mexico. Or perhaps it’s trying to win back its Hollywood moniker with a winning solo.
More about the House Finch on All About Birds, including audio.
More Birders Needed For the Calgary Christmas Bird Count.
Many of our regulars are away or busy with other events this year, so we have a bit of a shortage of birders to help with the count, which is next Sunday. We can use experienced birders who could lead the effort in a section of the city, or help with a field team in a section. Even if you are a novice birder you can help assist a field team. The more eyes the better! Plus we are always looking for more people to count birds at their backyard feeders. That can take as little as 30 minutes.
You can register to participate in the count at this page. You may use this form even if you just want more information and may not take part this year. If you have any questions, you can email me at birdscalgary@gmail.com.
Thanks for helping out in this long-running Citizen Science project!
The Calgary CBC will take place on Sunday December 17. If you want to take part either as part of a Field Team or as a backyard Feeder Watcher, please fill out the registration form. People who particpated last year will have already received this by email. Please only register once!
CBC Coordinator Matthew Wallace has created a CBC2023 Registration Form for all participants to fill out. We know that it’s a bit of a pain to have to fill this out annually. However, it drastically reduces the number of emails Matt receives and helps him to keep all of the information better organized (and updated if there are changes to your contact information). Please feel free to share the form with anyone you know who may be interested in taking part! The form is for ALL participants (Field Teams and Feeder Watchers).
Note that to be a Feeder Watcher, recording birds in your yard, you have to live within the Count Circle, which does not include the entire city. We will inform you if you resgister as a Feeder Watcher and your address lies outside the circle.
Below is more information about the count from Matt Wallace:
Calgary Count Day: Sunday, December 17, 2023
As you know, we have two divisions for people to participate. Field Teams and Feeder Watchers. Both are critical roles for us to be able to get adequate coverage of the circle area. Below is a brief summary of the roles. I also want to thank both Lara Fitzpatrick and Bob Lefebvre for agreeing to assist with compilation of all of your data submissions!
Field Teams: Field Teams are composed of a circle Section Leader and section teams which help to survey a specific region of the circle. Leaders are generally carried forward from previous years but we often require a handful of NEW leaders to assist in circle areas which are unable to participate in any given year. The teams of volunteers communicate with their leaders to find out where they will survey. Sometimes this is as a group and other times teams are split up to cover their section. Each year we try our best to get everyone who has expressed interest in joining field teams out in the field and in an area of the city that they are interested in (BUT this is not always possible due to having too many people in one section and not others). Participants who are assigned to teams will be contacted by their Section Leaders to coordinate meeting locations or objectives (i.e. areas to search) in early December. Any late registrations will be offered spots where we are lacking participants. Trust me when I say we’ll do our best to get you in a zone that’s interesting but please have an open mind and be willing to travel if needed.
Field Team Data Submission: Once again, we are using eBird to submit our information: bird data (All birds identified and counted). Effort Data is collected by the section leaders for the entire team and is submitted via email using a template.
On the form this year I included a “Comments” section where you can express any interest in potentially being a new field leader.
Feeder Watchers:
FWs are responsible for counting birds at their properties on count day (Dec. 17). Feeder Watchers must reside or be participating at a residence within the count circle for us to be able to use the data. The minimum time required for counting birds is 30 minutes over the course of the day. This can be as a single session or broken up at various times throughout the day. Counting for longer than 30 minutes is encouraged! There is a specific methodology into how birds are counted as an FW. So if you register to be an FW, we will send out instructions into how this works prior to the count.
Feeder Watcher Data Submission: FW data is collected using templates and submitted back via email.
Count Week (December 14-20):
The CBC is essentially a census of all of the birds within our area. Occasionally, we can miss a couple rare birds so count week is an opportunity to scout locations and pick up any birds we may have missed. If you see any interesting birds during this period, please email me directly [citynatureyyc@gmail.com] so that we can include them as “Count Week” birds or notify section leaders to try and find them on count day!
I recently posted about the Calgary Christmas Bird Count, which is a week from today, on Sunday December 18th. Birders, like everyone else, have a lot of committments at this time of year, and we find ourselves a little short of help on some of the field routes. In particular, we need a few people who are good birders and also quite fit, who are able to do long walk through some difficult terrain. One such area is the Paskapoo Slopes near Canada Olympic Park, which has many deep ravines. Last year there was a Barred Owl at the west end of that area, but we missed it! We also need help in the Edgemont Ravines, and possibly in East Calgary at Elliston Park and area (Elliston is not as challenging of a walk). These are all good areas, so you might find something special!
If you are not up to a long difficult route, or are less experienced, you are still welcome to help out in the field. You will be placed on a team with experienced birders.
For those of you who can’t make it out in the field but watch birds in your yard, we will take as many Feeder Watchers as we can get! We are particularly short in the NE quadrant of the city. Feeder-Watching does not require a long time commitment and can be done in as little as fifteen minutes, or in intervals during the day. Of course, to take part you must live within the count circle.
If you would like to participate this year, or even if you just want more information or may want to take part next year, please fill out the registration form and we will be in contact with you.
Calgary’s Christmas Bird Count (CBC) takes place on Sunday December 18, 2022! CBC began in 1900 and is the world’s longest-running citizen science event. The count has been going on in Calgary since 1952 and is a valuable resource for understanding species and population trends of birds found in Calgary and around the world.
Matthew Wallace will once again be organizing the count and compiling the results. Lara Fitzpatrick and I will assist once again.
Please take a minute to fill out the Registration form here. Unless you are a Feeder Watcher who has already been assigned to a FW Captain, we are asking everyone to register, even if you have participated last year or in many past years. This helps to ensure we have the correct and most up-to-date contact information for each person and reduces the thousands of emails down to a more manageable size. It also helps Matthew to organize the required participant information that is submitted to Audubon and confirm that feeder watcher residences are within the count circle.
Completing the form will ensure that you will receive information that will follow in the next few days. The form is required for both feeder watchers and field participants. It can be shared with anyone who may wish to take part this year. Please share widely. If you are not sure that you can participate, or if you would like more information about the count, please fill out the form so we can contact you.
Count Week Birds: If you come across any interesting birds during count week (December 15-21), please send information to citynatureyyc@gmail.com including any notes, counts, or photos you may have.
The Wild Bird Store in SE Calgary not only offers bird feed and every other product for the backyard birder, but they also have a very good Speaker Series featuring many great presenters on a variety of topics of interest to local birders.
The talks will all be done using Zoom. There are six upcoming talks on the next six Wednesdays, starting tomorrow with Dan Arndt speaking on Alberta Owls. (Unfortunately Dan’s presentation is now sold out. Tickets to these events are limited.) Check out the remaining talks below, starting March 23. They are all excellent speakers. I am particularly interested to hear Andrew Barnes on how he established the first breeding colony of Purple Martins in Calgary in many decades!
Please Note:Even though these are virtual seminars, they limit the number of spaces available. This will allow adequate time for the Q&A portion of the presentation. All presentations are through “ZOOM” and they suggest you sign up early to avoid disappointment.
Tickets can be purchased through Eventbrite and are non-refundable. Click the Eventbrite link below each talk description to purchase tickets.
DANIEL ARNDT
Daniel is a wildlife biologist specializing in wild bird surveys and is a tour operator here in Calgary.
Speaker Series Topic: “How and where to find owls in Alberta” Date: Wednesday March 16, 2022 Time: 6:00 PM Cost: $15.00 (+ fees & gst) —Sold Out! Daniel’s presentation will be on how and where to find owls in Alberta which will include the dos and don’ts of watching and photographing owls.
MYRNA PEARMAN
Retired biologist, passionate observer of nature, keen wildlife photographer and a nature columnist.
Speaker Series Topic: “Appreciating Bird Behaviour” Date: Wednesday March 23, 2022 Time: 6:00 PM Cost: $15.00 (+ fees & gst) Inspired by Jennifer Ackerman’s book, The Genius of Birds, Myrna will be giving a presentation that highlights some fascinating aspects of bird behaviour. Her talk will not only encourage a new appreciation for birds, but it also will help us better understand and marvel at the astonishing intelligence and abilities of our wild avian neighbours. She will focus on Alberta birds, especially the common species that grace our yards and gardens. Eventbrite
JAY INGRAM
Former TV host of the Discovery Channel’s Daily Planet and organizer & co-founder of Beakerhead. He is an engaging, provocative speaker who can address complex, scientific issues in non-technical terms.
Speaker Series Topic: “The First Bird” Date: Wednesday March 30, 2022 Time: 6:00 PM Cost: $15.00 (+ fees & gst) The fossil animal Archaeopteryx was first identified in the mid 1800s and still, despite competition from a horde of feathered dinosaurs, holds the title of “the first bird”. What does it tell us about the origins of bird flight? How well did it fly? Why have there been so many Archaeopteryx controversies? Eventbrite
ANDREW BARNES
Purple Martins of Calgary
Speaker Series Topic: “Purple Martin Colony in Calgary” Date: Wednesday April 6, 2022 Time: 6:00 PM Cost: $15.00 (+ fees & gst) Andrew Barnes has successfully established a Purple Martin house behind his residence in New Brighton here in Calgary. He has put considerable research and effort to have the first successful PUMA colony in Calgary in 80 years and the most southerly one in Alberta. Eventbrite
CHRIS FISHER
Best-selling co-author of popular field guide “Birds of Alberta”, filmmaker and television host shares inspiring storylines that connect audiences with skills that organizations value. Trained as a scientist and travelling the world as a lecturer, Chris explored and investigated universal strategies of success common to individuals, institutions and organizations.
Speaker Series Topic: “How wild birds have helped our mental health during the Pandemic” Date: Wednesday April 13, 2022 Time: 6:00 PM Cost: $15.00 (+ fees & gst) Chris delves into the popularity and importance wild birds have contributed to society’s mental health during these challenging times and will combine the topic with some local birding stories that have helped folks over the past two years. Eventbrite
To keep informed about future events hosted by the Wild Bird Store, sign up to receive their monthly newsletter here.
The counting and correcting is done, and here are the final results of the 2021 Calgary Christmas Bird Count (CBC). I helped out with the Feeder watchers again this year. Matthew Wallace coordinated the count and finalized the results. Lara Fitzpatrick created the spreadsheets that organized the data. It was a fun learning experience for us, and many emails were exchanged and many hours spent in Zoom meetings.
First, watch this summary video of the count results presented by Matthew:
The 2021 count was held on Sunday December 19. The temperature ranged from about -13 C to -10 C, with some light snow and winds of 10 to 20 kph. So the conditions were pretty good.
We had good participation this year, with 136 people out in the field (pretty much as many as we could manage with Covid protocols and the number of leaders we had) and 177 Feeder Watchers counting in their yards at 125 addresses (we can definitely add more Feeder Watchers).
The final total on count day was 73 species, plus another four species seen during Count Week (December 16-22) but missed on Count Day. The total number of individual birds recorded was 71,468. (All numbers have been corrected to account for possible double-counting.)
Field Observers
Feeder Watchers
70 species
36 species
65,640 birds
5,828 birds
Below is the bird list and the number of each species reported:
Cackling Goose
4
Canada Goose
18,954
Trumpeter Swan
5
Tundra Swan
1
Wood Duck
3
Gadwall
1
Mallard
17,251
Green-winged Teal
1
Canvasback
2
Redhead
18
Ring-necked Duck
5
Greater Scaup
2
Lesser Scaup
5
Harlequin Duck
4
Bufflehead
144
Common Goldeneye
554
Barrow’s Goldeneye
3
Hooded Merganser
2
Common Merganser
86
Ruddy Duck
1
Sharp-tailed Grouse
3
Gray Partridge
58
Ring-necked Pheasant
11
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon)
1,450
Eurasian Collared-Dove
2
American Coot
1
Wilson’s Snipe
1
Sharp-shinned Hawk
4
Northern Goshawk
6
Bald Eagle
55
Rough-legged Hawk
6
Great Horned Owl
9
Snowy Owl
1
Northern Saw-whet Owl
1
Belted Kingfisher
3
American Three-toed Woodpecker
2
Downy Woodpecker
264
Hairy Woodpecker
41
Pileated Woodpecker
4
Northern Flicker
419
Merlin
24
Gyrfalcon
1
Northern Shrike
8
Blue Jay
138
Black-billed Magpie
2,529
American Crow
65
Common Raven
649
Black-capped Chickadee
2,218
Mountain Chickadee
7
Boreal Chickadee
7
Golden-crowned Kinglet
2
Red-breasted Nuthatch
199
White-breasted Nuthatch
114
Brown Creeper
17
American Dipper
3
European Starling
326
Townsend’s Solitaire
18
American Robin
82
Bohemian Waxwing
15,676
Cedar Waxwing
11
House Sparrow
7,394
Pine Grosbeak
79
House Finch
2,015
Common Redpoll
294
Hoary Redpoll
2
White-winged Crossbill
41
Pine Siskin
50
American Tree Sparrow
3
Fox Sparrow
1
Dark-eyed Junco
91
White-crowned Sparrow
1
White-throated Sparrow
9
Song Sparrow
2
Other: Sp./Slash/Hybrid
5
The four Count Week birds were Varied Thrush (a continuing backyard bird that failed to show on Count Day), a Killdeer seen in Griffiths Wood Park, a Prairie Falcon seen in the east end on December 18th, and a Greater White-fronted Goose reported and photographed on the Elbow River at Sandy Beach, also on December 18.
Some of the notable birds this year were the two swan species and the Ruddy Duck (all continuing at Carburn Park), the three Sharp-tailed Grouse seen in the Tsuut’ina Nation in the SW, a Wilson’s Snipe and Snowy Owl at Carburn, a White-crowned Sparrow in the Weaselhead, and a Gyrfalcon.
We also had one species that had never been reported in the 69 previous Calgary counts – a Fox Sparrow in the yard of one of our Feeder watchers. This brings our cumulative total of all species reported on Calgary CBC’s to 143.
Matt Wallace, the count coordinator, has used the data to create some very interesting maps. (The maps below, and many more, will be posted on the Nature Calgary site when they are all complete.)
The Count Circle is divided into Sections, and here you can see how many species were found in each Section, and how the geography of the city influences species density.
Due to the open water here, we get a lot of Mallards and Canada Geese overwintering. We also often have big flocks of Bohemian Waxwings in the winter. As a result, we tend to get really high numbers of total individual birds reported. This year, 71,468 individual birds were counted. This is one of the highest totals (and possibly the highest) of any of the CBC’s in Canada this year. It is far higher than the totals for the Edmonton or Toronto counts, for example.
Below is a map that shows all the Feeder Watcher addresses (the white dots). Some areas have quite a few, but we can definitely use more!
It’s interesting to look at some individual species. Bald Eagles:
The Eagles are concentrated along the lower stretches of the Bow River, where they feed mostly on sick or injured Mallards.
Here is the Mallard map:
Note how closely the Mallard distribution mirrors that of Bald Eagles. Mallards rest on the river, and go out to farmer’s fields to feed. There was also a huge concentration of 6,000 birds in the bit of open water at the northeast corner of Elliston Lake. Perhaps this is a safe place for them to rest, where there are fewer eagles around to prey on them than along the Bow.
The Canada Goose numbers were even higher than the Mallard numbers, with a similar distribution.
Black-billed Magpies are probably the most visible bird in Calgary, as they are found in all habitats and are very vocal. Many residents find them too aggressive and noisy to be likeable, but they are fascinating, beautiful, and intelligent birds. Like other urbanophiles (American Crows, House Sparrows, House Finches, and Rock Pigeons for example), they are doing very well in the urban environment.
The total number of Magpies reported on the CBC continues on a long-term upward climb:
As in the Magpie example above, we can use the CBC data to produce graphs of long-term trends of the overall results and of the numbers of individual species. The next graph shows that the number of participants and party-hours has steadily increased over time, as has the total number of birds recorded, but the number of species seen each year has plateaued.
The 73 species we had this year is the third-highest total ever, but it is line with a pretty flat graph since the mid-1980’s:
Below is an interesting graph that shows the number of Sharp-tailed Grouse reported. We had three this year, and three in 2016. But that’s it for the last twenty-plus years. They used to be found on Nose Hill and other areas at the city’s edge. But Nose Hill is now surrounded by development and the city has expanded to most edges of the Count Circle.
The results of the Calgary Count and several other nearby CBC’s were presented at the January meeting of Nature Calgary’s Bird Study Group. The meeting was recorded, and a replay will soon be available on the Nature Calgary site here.
The next Calgary CBC will be on Sunday December 18, 2022. If you haven’t taken part before and are interested in participating, either as a Field Observer or a Feeder Watcher, email me at birdscalgary[at]gmail.com.
Many thanks to Matt Wallace for all his hard work in organizing the count and producing the maps, to Lara Fitzpatrick, who created the spreadsheets that captured all the data, and to the photographers.
Here is a link to an article about the Calgary Count results on CBC news, including a video interview.
Be sure to subscribe to Matthew’s Citizen Blitz channel on YouTube to keep informed about upcoming citizen science events in Calgary – and to see more great nature videos!. You can also follow him on Twitter (atcitynatureyyc) and on Instagram (atcitizenblitz).
There has been a great deal of interest this year in the annual Calgary Christmas Bird Count. Matt Wallace, the Count Coordinator, and his leaders already have enough people registered to fill all the field teams. But if you’d like to participate by counting birds in your yard on Sunday December 19th, you are welcome to join us. You can count for as little as 30 minutes over the course of the day, or as long as you are able to – all at once, or intermittently.
For your observations to be added to the official count, you must live within the Calgary Count Circle:
If you are interested in taking part, just fill out the registration form below (it is a Google form, but you do not have to be signed into a Google account to fill it out). Matt Wallace or myself (the Feeder Watcher Coordinator) will verify that you are in the circle, and contact you with everything you need to know in order to participate in this long-running Citizen Science activity. We can also send you information on common winter backyard birds of Calgary, with photos.
We are particularly interested in trying to get more complete coverage of the city with our Feeder Watchers. There are a few neighbourhoods which are under-represented, as you can see in the map below, which shows the approximate locations of all of our participants.
We would especially like to fill out this map in northeast Calgary, and there are a few other areas without much coverage, a shown below.
So if you live in one of these areas, please consider registering for the count. But we will accept you wherever you are!
Calgary’s 69th annual Christmas Bird Count will take place on Sunday, December 19, 2021. Matthew Wallace is now the coordinator for the count, taking over from long-time organizer Phil Cram. I will again be assisting with the Feeder Watchers.
As usual there will be opportunities for people who want to go out in the field to count birds, and for feeder watchers who will count birds in their yards.
If you are interested in taking part, or in getting more information about participating, please fill out the following form for the 2021 count: